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6. In paragraph 15 of the plaint, it is averred that on 11.6.2005, a news story was telecast by NDTV India (Hindi), regarding the Plaintiff, its founder President, founder Trustee and its Institutions. It is stated that the telecast which was for a period of more than three minutes, was regularly repeated after every half an hour that day by the TV Channel. The TV channel aired the pre-recorded voice of the defendant on telephone, while his photograph Page 2530 appeared on TV. The defendant was speaking from London and he said in Hindi that:

Har Jaghah unhe jo unhone case file kiya tha who jeet te aaye hain aur jahan jahan unhe Chauhan brothers ki property milti hai unko attach karke rakha hua hai.
It is further stated that on 11.6.2005, after viewing the said telecast and stunned by the manipulated story, Mr Arun Kumar Chauhan, founder Trustee of the Plaintiff, immediately faxed a letter to NDTV India stating that the news story being telecast by them is incorrect and that Mr Arun Kumar Chauhan and Dr Ashok Kumar Chauhan have filed a Writ Petition (Crl.) No. 865-66/2005 before the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi on 30.5.2005 and that the Hon'ble High Court has issued notice in the said writ petition and has also granted a stay in their favor. The TV channel was asked to immediately stop and withdraw the telecast. It is further averred that similar offending letters with incorrect, baseless, unfounded and unwarranted allegations against the plaintiff, its founder President, Trustees and AMITY Institutions have been written by the defendant to Ministry of Human Resources Development. The plaintiff was called by the Ministry of HRD to give a clarification. It is further alleged that on 23.6.2005, an employee of the Plaintiff namely Pradeep Kumar received a call on his mobile at 13:59:29, from the defendant wherein the defendant asked for Ashok Chauhan and threatened that he will have all the AMITY Institutions shut down and will put an end to all the advertisements of AMITY in newspapers. The defendant also conveyed and confirmed that the article and news story in Tehelka and NDTV were his doings and at his behest and he demanded that if one million Pound Sterling are not paid to him by Dr Ashok Chauhan, he will not let them live in peace and that they and their children will face dire consequences. It is stated that similar threatening calls were made by defendant earlier to Dr Ashok K. Chauhan and Mr Arun Kumar Chauhan in July, 2004. It is then stated in paragraph 21 that the offending and defamatory news article in Tehelka and the letters to City University and Ministry of HRD have been read by large number of people and the telecast was viewed by all the persons who are connected with the Plaintiff, which amounts to publication of the defamatory article. It is further stated that the libelous statements contained in the news article/telecast/letters were neither called for, nor have any justification and have unnecessarily, willingly and wrongly exposed the plaintiff and its founder President and Trustee to ridicule. The statements, according to the plaintiff, have lowered the plaintiff in the esteem of the right thinking members of the society in general and their trade and profession in particular and it has tended to make them shun and avoid the plaintiff, its Institutions, founder President and founder Trustee. In paragraph 25 of the plaint, it is submitted that from the circumstances detailed above, it can be clearly inferred that the defendant's statements were:

9. Apart from this, the general thrust of the case for the plaintiff is that defamatory statements were contained in the article which appeared in Tehelka (Exhibit-PW-1/30) on 11.06.2005, the e-mail (Exhibit-PW-1/31) sent by the defendant to the Vice-Chancellor of City University, London and its further communication by Dr Khan to Major General R.K. Dhawan (PW-2), purported letters written to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New Delhi and the NDTV telecast on 11.06.2005 (the CD of the alleged incriminating telecast is Exhibit-PW-1/32). Major General R.K. Dhawan (PW-2) filed an affidavit essentially to prove the receipt of the e-mail (Exhibit-PW-1/31). Rakesh Khanna (PW-3) stated in his affidavit that he was shocked and stunned to read the articles as appearing in Tehelka and Page 2532 the clip as it appeared in NDTV. According to him, these tended to lower the reputation of the plaintiff in his eyes. In conclusion, he stated that:

10. Examining the pleadings and the entire evidence on record, I find that the entire thrust of the case is that the reputation of the Chauhan family and in particular Mr Ashok Kumar Chauhan and Mr Arun Kumar Chauhan has been demeaned by the defendant. Unfortunately, the said Mr Ashok Kumar Chauhan and Mr Arun Kumar Chauhan are not the plaintiffs. The plaintiff is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Mr Ashok Chauhan is the President of the Executive Board of the plaintiff society and the other members of the Chauhan family are also members of the Executive Board. The 7 members of the Executive Board indicated in the Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations of the plaintiff society (Exhibit-PW-1/2) are also founder members for life and are not liable to retire. All of them are members of the Chauhan family. The statements alleged to be of a defamatory/libelous nature which are being attributed to the defendant are allegedly those contained in the Tehelka edition of 11.06.2005 (Exhibit-PW-1/30); e-mail from the defendant to the Vice-Chancellor of the City University of London as communicated to Major General R.K. Dhawan (Exhibit-PW-1/31); news story telecast on NDTV on 11.06.2005 (Exhibit-PW-1/32) and some letters written to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New Delhi. Insofar as the letters allegedly written to the HRD Ministry, New Delhi are concerned, the same are not on record and, therefore, the contents of the said letters, if indeed they were written, are unknown. Therefore, nothing turns on the purported letters allegedly written to the HRD Ministry, Government of India, New Delhi. As regards the Tehelka edition of 11.06.2005 (Exhibit-PW-1/30), the front page carries the title Germany wants Amity owners extradited for financial fraud. The article itself is at page 14 of the newspaper. On going through the article, it is abundantly clear that it is against the AMITY Directors, Ashok Kumar Chauhan and Arun Kumar Chauhan and the only reference to the plaintiff society in the said article is in the following words: